There have been a number of big animated films released this year already, including Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon 2 which is in theaters now. But if something feels a little off about the field it may be due to Pixar not having any movies in 2014. They were planning to release The Good Dinosaur last May but it was bumped until 2015 when there will be two films from the studio. Opening in June will be the eagerly anticipated and extremely ambitious Inside Out, which takes us into the mind of an 11-year-old girl. Preceding it will be another of Pixar's excellent short films, Lava, and now we have the first image from it.

Directed by James Ford Murphy, an animator on A Bug's Life, Cars, Toy Story 2 and more, the film is described as a musical romance about a lonely male volcano named Uku who wishes for a companion, only to discover that a female volcano exists just below sea level. Pixar and Disney often use their short films to experiment with different animation styles and it will be interesting to see if they do anything new for Lava. Those who caught an early preview of it at at a special Pixar event last month said the film wasn't quite as ambitious visually as The Blue Umbrella or La Luna. It's also unclear who will be voicing the animated volcanoes and if there will be more characters.

Lava will be seen ahead of Inside Out on June 19th 2015.

PLOT: Inspired by the isolated beauty of tropical islands and the explosive allure of ocean volcanoes, “LAVA” is a musical love story that takes place over millions of years.

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Travis Hopson is a member of the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association and co-creator of the Punch Drunk Critics website, as well as a regular contributor to a number of entertainment broadcasts.